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Friday, 7 March 2014

Defiance Games goes to China

Yeah...there's no way this ends well...So Defiance Games...yeah, what can I say about it? They apparently still owe money to Torn Armor and haven't returned it. Lawyers are being set on both sides, but frankly, that's another issue entirely. Then there's the latest update from their Kickstarter (here) which is worrying to say the least. Apparently they've decided to move all production to China for the Hardsuits. Oh joy, this can't possibly go wrong. Can it? For those who remember WGF and Tony's initial forays into china production, yes it can.

We apologize for the lack of updates! As you know we've been dealing with quite a bit in the background as we push this project forward.

As we mentioned last time, Kickstarter fulfillment is the complete focus of the company at this time. These new products will be the foundation on which we build out and launch more new products in the future.

We also made a decision with the Hardsuits and the German Mech that is changing the timeline. Originally we were just going to spin cast these in the same way as the Bugs, Chinese infantry, etc. But we realized the demand for these would be such - not just for the Kickstarter fulfillment but for long term as well - that it would make a lot of sense to have them injection molded.

The hard suits will be a restic style plastic - the material is very similar to what we are doing with the spin cast. The mechs - knock on wood if all goes well - will be high impact polystyrene (HIPS) and can be put together with plastic glue.

We did an extensive search and vetting of potential outsource manufacturing partners and chose a factory in China to work with. They have done quite a bit of work in the games industry and we've been impressed with their capabilities. Chinese New Year messed with our schedule a bit - that's a 3-4 week hiatus in China - but we are now back on track with them. We don't have a final date for the hard suits yet but we're working on that with them.

There are a lot of balls in the air and a lot is going on. We are taking it all slow and steady and day by day. We want to make sure we make the best product we possibly can. We will do our best to keep everyone up to speed as we go along. Thanks again for your support!

So the update was posted on Mar 1 2014 when the KS is supposed to be shipped in between Feb-April 2014....Yeah, that makes me feel so much better that DG suddenly decided to up and switch production material as well as production location ONE month before the actual shipping date. At this rate, they'll be lucky if they make it for Q2 2014.Not to mention they BARELY manage to produce their own stuff on time when they're personally overseeing their production, let alone when they're producing it in another country entirely. And let's be frank here, in a country full of mavericks. I'm not saying China production is bad but I work MOSTLY with Chinese manufacturers and shit, the stuff they can get up to or the excuses they give are just mind boggling at times.I guess that's why they say in their update they have no clue when the hardsuits will actually be produced (if they're produced) but they're going to keep it slow. And steady. Personally, it's an even bet if this KS or Raging Heroes will finish first. As others have so cynically said, this may just be the prelude to the end where months down the road, DG comes up with a statement saying the Chinese never produced their stuff, they're all out of money, so sorry backers etc etc. Hopefully it doesn't come to that, but with Tony, you NEVER know.